Kingston Sinterklaas celebration captivates children (video)

Phoenicia resident Ron Van Beek, as Sinterklaas, waves to onlookers on Saturday as he prepares to join the festival's parade on lower Broadway in Kingston. (Photo by William J. Kemble)

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- Hundreds of children in the Hudson River Maritime Museum on Saturday transformed themselves into the kings and queens of holiday festivities during the city's Sinterklaas celebration.

The event included a parade down lower Broadway that allowed the youngsters to show off their individualized crowns and scepters, which were made with parental assistance using glue guns to secure jewels, ribbons, glitter and lace for colorful display.

Goshen residents Mary and Ray Zacharkevics said the Dutch-themed Sinterklaas festival was an opportunity to avoid commercial events in favor of programs that allowed their three children to use their creativity. Mrs. Zacharkevics said last year's Sinterklaas festivals in Rhinebeck was so much that she was grateful to have the event expand to Kingston and include additional activities.

"We thought this was a great alternative way to enjoy the holiday," Mrs. Zacharkevics said.

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Ray Zacharkevics said the children were afraid of the Grumpuses, characters assigned to protect Sinterklaas, until the quintet of gawdy bodyguards demonstrated their child-friendly side.

"They were a little bit frightened of the Grumpuses at first, but when they started throwing candy, the kids changed their mind," he said.

After the parade, Sinterklaas, dressed in a bishop's hat and red cape, boarded a tug boat and made his way from the Rondout to Rhinecliff as part of a representative journey intended to symbolize the trip more 300 years ago from Spain to the Netherlands.

"When he arrived in the Netherlands for one week, he would ride through the towns accompanied by the Grumpuses, who would carry bags of candy for the good kids and switches for the bad kids," said event organizer Susan Linn.

The youthful spirit of those attending the festival on Saturday could be heard in the squeals of 6-year-old Jack Martin of Brewster, who walked outside of the Maritime Museum to see his first snowfall of the year and promptly try to catch a flake on his lounge.

"Tricky snow," he said. "It keeps melting."

Among the goals of the Sinterklaas festival was to draw attention to the city's Rondout area, which Linn said has benefitted from a good autumn tourist.

"There is a little bit of everything down here, so when people come, they'll see there are restaurants, some museums, some shopping, we have the trolley, and so they don't just come down for the parade but will have other things to do," she said.

"Last year was our first year doing Sinterklaas, and it was successful beyond our wildest imagination," Linn said. "We would love to grow as big as Rhinebeck('s festival), but it's going to take a while to do that. But this year we were able to add performances, we had a tree-lighting, a lot of open houses, and we were able to make this a very community-oriented event that is really about the kids."